The field of this invention is that of remotely controlled circuit breaker systems and the invention relates more particularly to a low cost, reliable system for providing remote control for circuit breakers which are of generally conventional configurations.
There are a large number of situations, particularly in aircraft, where it is desirable to mount a circuit breaker in one location to be responsive to overload current conditions or the like in an electrical circuit for opening the circuit and where it is also desirable to be able to operate the circuit breaker as a contactor from a second, remote location. For example, in aircraft it is frequently desirable to avoid the weight and cost of running long lengths of heavy and expensive cable from power generators to electrical loads via the cockpit or flight engineers console. It is much easier and more economical to locate circuit breakers near the generators or loads for protecting the circuits against overload conditions and then to run light, inexpensive remote control wires to the breaker from a switch in a control console to permit remote, selective operation of the breaker as an electrical contactor as is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,651,436. Typically however, circuit breakers which have been adapted for such remote control operation have tended to be of special and expensive construction and there are many applications where it would be desirable to be able to employ remotely controlled circuit breaker systems incorporating more widely available and less expensive circuit breakers of conventional configurations such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,361,882.